THE REACH OF WAR: DETAINEES

THE REACH OF WAR: DETAINEES; DEFENSE LEADERS FAULTED BY PANEL IN PRISON ABUSE

By ERIC SCHMITT

Published: August 24, 2004

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23—
A high-level outside panel reviewing American military detention operations has concluded that leadership failures at the highest levels of the Pentagon, Joint Chiefs of Staff and military command in Iraq contributed to an environment in which detainees were abused at Abu Ghraib prison and other facilities, Defense officials said Monday.

The report, set to be released Tuesday, does not explicitly blame Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for the misconduct or for ordering policies that condoned or encouraged it. But the panel implicitly faults Mr. Rumsfeld, as well as his top civilian and military aides, for not exercising sufficient oversight over a confusing array of policies and interrogation practices at detention centers in Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq, officials said.

The military's Joint Staff, which is responsible for allocating military resources among the various combatant commanders, is criticized for not recognizing that military police officers at Abu Ghraib were overwhelmed by an influx of detainees, while the ratio of prisoners to guards was much lower at the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The report also criticizes the top commander in Iraq at the time, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, for not paying close enough attention to worsening conditions at Abu Ghraib, delegating oversight of prison operations to subordinates.

The highest-ranking Army reservist charged in the Abu Ghraib case, Staff Sgt. Ivan L. Frederick II, said Monday that he would plead guilty to at least some charges. [Page A6.]

In contrast to the half dozen military inquiries into aspects of the Abu Ghraib scandal, including the roles of the military police and military intelligence officials, the four-member panel led by James R. Schlesinger, a former defense secretary, was appointed by Mr. Rumsfeld to identify gaps in the reviews and offer a critique of senior officials' roles that uniformed military officers might be reluctant to level against superiors.

The Schlesinger panel's report and a high-level Army investigation into the role of military intelligence officials in the misconduct, which is also set to be released this week, are expected to offer important new details and context that may help explain the causes of a scandal that came to the military's attention last January, but only became public in April with the disclosure of photographs of prisoner abuse. The panel said in a statement that it would brief Mr. Rumsfeld, who is traveling this week, by video-teleconference on Tuesday, and then present its findings at a news conference at the Pentagon. The Army is expected to release the findings of its own review this week, probably on Wednesday.

The broad outlines of the Schlesinger panel's work were described by two Defense officials who had portions of it summarized for them by associates. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the full report has not been made public.

In addition to Mr. Schlesinger, the panel members are Harold Brown, another former defense secretary; Tillie K. Fowler, a former Republican congresswoman from Florida and chairwoman of the investigation last year into sexual misconduct at the United States Air Force Academy; and Gen. Charles A. Horner, a retired four-star Air Force officer who led the air campaign in the Persian Gulf war in 1991.

All of the panel members, who also sit on the Defense Policy Board, an advisory panel to Mr. Rumsfeld, have reputations for independent thinking. Some Congressional officials warned, however, that they had not yet seen the report's precise language, so it was difficult to gauge just how critical it would be of Mr. Rumsfeld and other officials.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled two hearings for Sept. 9 to review the findings of the Schlesinger panel and the Army investigation, which was opened by Maj. Gen. George R. Fay. The committee has held hearings into the scandal, but none since May 19, as many Republicans in the House and some in the Senate have voiced fears that keeping the issue alive on Capitol Hill could hurt President Bush's re-election prospects in November.

''The Schlesinger panel has the power to look up the civilian chain of command, and is not limited,'' a Senate Republican aide said Monday. ''It is a key report.''

The Schlesinger panel interviewed only about two dozen people, but it focused on senior policy makers and commanders. The panel is the only inquiry to interview Mr. Rumsfeld (twice); Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz; Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top American commander in the Middle East. ''It is very comprehensive,'' one senior defense official said of the report.

The report's executive summary ticks off problems in organization, detention policies, command structures and the training of active-duty personnel and reservists, all issues that Mr. Rumsfeld asked the panel to examine in a May 12 memorandum.

''It would be helpful to me to have your independent, professional advice on the issues that you consider most pertinent related to the various allegations, based on your review of completed and pending investigative reports and other materials and information,'' he said in the memo. ''I am especially interested in your views on the cause of the problems and what should be done to fix them.''

Defense officials said Monday that there was overlap in the conclusions of the panel and some other inquiries, which officials said was to be expected, given the panel's mandate.

The panel, for instance, recommends revamping training and policy for military police operations in counterinsurgencies like those in Iraq and Afghanistan. A report by the Army inspector general last month identified the same issue.

The panel also criticized the leadership of Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade at Abu Ghraib, just as Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba did in his inquiry, the first investigation into the prisoner abuse. --------------------

Marine Is Tried in Iraqi's Death

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., Aug. 23 (AP) -- A marine went on trial on Monday on charges that he kicked the chest of an Iraqi prisoner who authorities say later suffocated from a crushed windpipe.

The assault case against the marine, Reserve Sgt. Gary Pittman, is the first court-martial known to be connected to the death of a prisoner in Iraq.

The prisoner, Nagem Hatab, had been rumored to be an official of the Baath Party of Saddam Hussein and a participant in the ambush of a United States Army convoy that left 11 soldiers dead and led to the capture of Pfc. Jessica Lynch and five others.

A fellow marine who has been granted immunity said Sergeant Pittman kicked Mr. Hatab in the chest so hard that he flew three feet.

Defense lawyers say that Mr. Hatab died of natural causes, perhaps from an asthma attack.